Disability Advocate Slams White House’s Veteran Surveillance Plan
The Hill BY TODD NEIKIRK April 15, 2019
Republicans have long presented themselves as the unquestioned pro-military political party. In the last few months, however, conservatives have been targeting veteran benefits. Fox News hosts, Brian Kilmeade and Pete Hegseth, got in on the act recently, taking aim at vets who they believe to be claiming too many benefits.
The White House has recently taken aim at former troops as well, creating a new social media surveillance policy. According to the New York Times, the Social Security administration is on the look out for disabled vets who look too happy.
Lawyer, Robert Crowe, says, “There is a little bitty chance that Social Security may be snooping on your Facebook or your Twitter account. You don’t want anything on there that shows you out playing Frisbee.” read more here
The Associated Press By: Yuri Kageyama April 13, 2019
TOKYO — A U.S. serviceman fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself in Okinawa on Saturday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said, amid growing resentment about the presence of American troops in the southwestern Japanese region.
The apartment where a U.S. servicemen and a Japanese woman were found dead, in Chatan town on Okinawa on Saturday. The sailor fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself , according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, amid growing resentment about the presence of American troops in Japan's southwestern region. (Kyodo News via AP)
U.S. Forces Japan said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was working with local police to look into the deaths of a U.S. Navy sailor assigned to a Marine unit and an Okinawa resident.
“This is an absolute tragedy and we are fully committed to supporting the investigation,” it said in a statement, adding that more information would be released later. read more here
Blea had eye exams outside of the VA system that showed his vision could be corrected to 20/30 in one eye and 20/40 in another. He also had a driver’s license and drove regularly.
Mike Rodolfo Blea, of Northglenn, Colorado, was sentenced Wednesday by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Daniel to serve twelve months in prison, followed by three years on supervised release for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of nearly $1.3 million by pretending to be blind. (rclassenlayouts/Getty Images)
DENVER — A Colorado man has been sentenced to a year in prison for defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of nearly $1.3 million by pretending to be blind.
Mike Blea, of Northglenn, was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to pay the VA $1,273,180 in restitution.
Investigators say Blea is a Vietnam veteran who started getting VA disability payments in 1969 for visual impairment.
He did have a minor problem with his eyesight but started to exaggerate how bad it was. read more here
PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos April 14, 2019 When you are grieving, sometimes you need to apply the brakes...so that you can #BreakTheSilence of what you are going through. Most of the time people do not know what to expect from themselves. You may judge yourself, or expect more from your core.
Instead of dismissing your own emotions, honor what you are feeling so you can being the healing.
If you are angry, then honor it. I yelled at my Dad at the cemetery a few days after his funeral. I chewed out my brother at the funeral home before everyone else got there. I was angry because I wanted them to still be here. If you are sad, then honor that. They were a part of your life and they still can be in your memories of them. There comes a time when those memories will stop being painful reminders they are gone. The memories become fond ones of times when they were here. Do not judge yourself or let anyone else judge you for not grieving enough or too much, or taking too long to "get over it" because they did it another way. read more here
Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 14, 2019
When the article on The Washington Post went viral, most people thought that it was horrible, but they thought it was accurate as well. February 7, 2019
The parking lot suicides
Veterans are taking their own lives on VA hospital campuses, a desperate form of protest against a system that they feel hasn’t helped them.
His death is among 19 suicides that occurred on VA campuses from October 2017 to November 2018, seven of them in parking lots, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
It wasn't. I contacted the reporter, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and complained that she got it wrong. There were too many missing. She believed what the VA told her, instead of actually doing research to find out how many were missing from their data. December 17, 2018, I posted how there had been at least 27 veterans committing suicide in very public ways. Most of them were at VA facilities. I use "at least" because they are not all reported in the newspapers or on local news stations. I am sure I missed some. It is happening again. First came the headline about two veterans committing suicide at VA facilities in Georgia. Then they added on another veteran who committed suicide in Texas. What about the other one who committed suicide in Florida?
Brieux Dash hanged himself March 14 at the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach. The U.S. Army veteran had a military family by blood and another by marriage. He joined after high school and went twice into combat. And came home with post-traumatic stress syndrome.The Palm Springs man raised a family of three and was able to graduate college. But his demons were gaining on him.
Or this veteran who had been given a ride by Jimmy Johns, which did make national news?
Greg Holeman "Army veteran who served as a mechanic, fatally shot himself inside his pickup truck on the night of February 25, a Platte County Sheriff's Office lieutenant told KETV NewsWatch 7. The 48-year-old was parked outside of the Columbus Community Hospital's emergency department.
Those suicides did not make national news with the others. One more example of how the media forgot it is their job to actually research what they are claiming to be factual. I find these stories because I care. When will they care enough to get this right? They are also still pushing the "22 a day" slogan instead of investigating what we know. To our veterans, you do matter and the deaths of the other veterans who committed suicide in public did it for a reason. While it was the wrong way to fight for the rest of you, that is why they chose to do it in the open where no one could cover it up. If you want to make a difference for others to, do it the right way! If your VA is not living up to the needs of veterans in your community, contact the hospital administrator and complain. If that fails, go to the media. If your local charity is taking in money but shutting the door on veterans needing help, contact the head of it. If that fails, contact the media. If you are not getting the help you need, contact the media. As much as I complain when they get the report wrong, they hold power to put public pressure on what is wrong. Hell, think of it this way. It is one way to make them do their jobs and get something fixed so that you can live to see it happen!
The legislation would require the VA to notify Congress of any suicide or suicide attempt and the name of the VA facility and location where the event occurred, no later than seven days after it happens. Sixty days after the event, the VA would be required to provide even more information to Congress, including the enrollment status of the veteran, with respect to the patient enrollment system at the VA, and the most recent encounter between the veteran and any employee or facility of the Veterans Health Administration before the suicide or attempted suicide occurred.
And then there is this, which is bad.
Between October 2017 and November 2018, there were 19 suicides on VA campuses -- seven in parking lots -- according to AMVETS.
AMVETS Executive Director Joseph Chenelly said that suicides at VA facilities "appear to be protests of last resort where health care systems, treatment programs, and the underlying cultures of the responsible federal agencies have failed them."
Marine shot and killed at Beaufort air station, another Marine in custody
Marine Corps Times By: Shawn Snow April 13, 2019
A Marine was shot and killed aboard the Beaufort, South Carolina, Marine air station at 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to Marine officials.
Another Marine is a suspect in the shooting and currently is in custody, according to Lt. Kevin Buss, a spokesman with the Beaufort air station.
The Marine killed in the deadly shooting belonged to Marine Aircraft Group 31, or MAG-31.
The incident is under investigation and the Corps provided no other details.
MAG-31 and the Beaufort air station are also home to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, an F-35B training squadron. get updates here
Father of four killed in crane accident at SoHo construction site
PIX 11 News BY KRISTINE GARCIA AND CRISTIAN BENAVIDES APRIL 13, 2019
SOHO, Manhattan — A construction worker who was a father of four and war veteran died early Saturday during a crane incident at a Manhattan construction site.
Gregory Echevarria, 34, was found unconscious and unresponsive with severe trauma to his body at a construction site in the vicinity of Varick and Broome streets around 3:15 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The construction crew, that also included Echevarria's brother, was setting up a crane counterweight when it slipped, fatally striking Echevarria, a source told PIX11.
Echevarria's final act was reportedly pushing a coworker out of the way, saving his life.
"He's selfless, that's one thing I can say," family friend Duane Davis told PIX11 Saturday outside Echevarria's childhood home in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
"The best father, son, everything," family member Judi Cruz said of Echevarria.
Family told PIX11 that Echevarria was a father of four, including a three-month-old, and that he was a veteran. Echevarria did four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over 10 years, according to family members, who are devastated that his baby boy is left without a father. read more here
update 4-26-19 I contacted lawyers over this and they wanted to know how many books were involved...
I have no way of knowing that considering how many people had viewed my profile that far outnumber the page views on Wounded Times and my videos. Consider how many searched for me and then understand why I may never know. Yes, that says 15,446,256 and is the Google count on my profile from a few years ago.
Why you should never publish your book on April Fools Day or with Xlibris
Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 13, 2019
"We're not interested in owning your work...after all, we didn't write it." Xlibris
That quote is from the Xlibris brochure that made me decide on choosing them as the (FLUSHING) publisher for the book that had to "get out there" way back in 2003.
After all this time telling veterans to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife that is what I am doing. Breaking the silence on what has been torturing me for all these years and taking back control over my own work! I wrote FOR THE LOVE OF JACK, HIS WAR/MY BATTLE before 9-11 but could not find a publisher. After all, it was about a veteran's family living with PTSD. To top that off, the veteran was a Vietnam veteran. You know, before they were big news again.
After 9-11, I added to the ending and had the copyright done in 2002. 2003 I decided to self publish it. On April 1, 2003 it was published.
Yes, April Fools Day! Should have known right there it was off to a bad start with this (FLUSH) company.
After 16 years...I can assure you, that while the actual ownership of the book does belong to me, they have not seemed to be able to remember that fact. I was hearing from people about reading the book, but saw few sales reported. I questioned Xlibris and they said that they were "used" books they must have been reading. Used book? How when there were only a few "new" ones sold according to them. Just to find out what was going on, I ordered 2 books from Barnes and Noble. I had them shipped to the store and yes, paid full price. The bar code did not work. Anyway, a few more emails and trust was gone. I wanted my book out of their hands. I told them to stop printing it. That didn't work. Really odd that they did not manage to explain why the book was still being sold, if there were no sales. I wrote to the Better Business Bureau and Xlibris responded with it was my ego that was involved and not their problem. Besides, they also said that I was taking up too much of their time. Odd thing is that responding to the BBB, they said that "half a dozen" more were sold. By 2004 I totally had it and my lawyer sent them a letter to stop publishing it and give me a full report. In 2005, the book was still being sold. I (FLUSH) emailedthem again!
This is their response.
RE: STOP SELLING MY BOOK/CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION Mon, Mar 14, 2005 6:33 am Channel (Channel@Xlibris.com)
Dear Ms. Costos, As long as Ingram still has physical copies of your book in stock, your book will continue to be listed as available and people can continue to purchase copies of it through the different online resellers. Another way to get hold of your book is through the used book resellers.
What happened was when customers decided to sell their used copy of a book to these resellers; they can set the book's price to any amount they want when they list it with online resellers with Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes and Noble.com. Xlibris does not have a relationship with these used book resellers nor do we have a say in the way they operate their business since they got these books from the customers who decided to sell their purchased books to them. Further, these used book resellers are entitled to sell used book under the first sale doctrine of copyright law.
This email is also to confirm the cancellation of your book with Xlibris. Your book entitled "For The Love of Jack", with ISBN 1-4010-8691-8, is no longer available for sale through our Xlibris website or the 800 number. Although no new copies of your book will be produced from this point forward you should be aware that due to our relationship with various printers and book distributors, physical copies of your book currently exist within the book vending channels. For reasons of quality assurance and to provide a more efficient ordering process, Ingram will keep a handful of copies of all titles listed with them in stock at all times.Ingram currently shows one (1) physical copy of your book in stock.Your title will remain available in the channels until this copy is sold. When a title is listed as cancelled, production knows not to replenish this stock once it is depleted. Unfortunately, it must be depleted before Ingram will remove the title's listing from its system.
Amazon and the other online channels base their listing information from what Ingram's system provides. As a result, as long as Ingram has copies in stock, title will remain listed with the online stores. These online resellers and distributors could not change the availability of your book to out of stock until somebody purchases these remaining books from them.
The copies that the online retailers have were purchased from us (you were paid royalties for these sales) giving the resellers the right to continue the sale of your book with no implication on the contract between you and Xlibris. Please note that as part of Barnes and Noble's sales programs, titles that are considered "out of print" are kept in the system as such to allow customers the ability to track hard-to-find books. Hard-to-find and out-of-print books present a great source of revenue for these businesses, which is why they continue listing books that are no longer available through their distributor. We would like you to know that it has been a pleasure doing business with you. We wish you success in your writing endeavors and we hope to work with you again in the future.
How could there be more "used" copies than ones I had been "paid for" in the first place?
"Hard-to-find and out-of-print books present a great source of revenue for these businesses, which is why they continue listing books that are no longer available through their distributor."
A great source of revenue that are no longer available? Is this why they refused to pull the book? FLUSHING seriously?
I emailed them again and told them I wanted this stopped! I asked them how I could finally get this done.
This is their reply.
Channel (Channel@Xlibris.com)To:you (Bcc) + 1 more DetailsDear Ma'am,Currently, there is only one (1) physical copy of the book left at Ingram's microinventory. You may purchase this remaining copy either through Amazon/Borders.com or Barnes and Noble.com. Based on Amazon's listing, it is indicated that there is only 1 left in stock for your title. List Price: $20.99
So I paid full price for that book and others!
Well this kept going on, and on, and on! I tried giving away free PDF of it, and that happened many times, because I figured if I was not getting paid, I could at least control that and get it into the hands of people it would help. In 2012, I opted to have it republished with a few changes on Amazon.
Long story short, 2019 and the book was still online. I am planning on writing the follow up. Last week, after trying to get my ducks in a row for more changes coming to this site (which we'll talk about later), I went onto Amazon and saw that the damn thing was still online right next to the one I put up in 2012. I hit the roof when I saw that there were "new" copies and "used" copies.
I sent an email to Xlibris, Lightening Source/Ingram (the printer) and Amazon legal department.Ingram legal department responded, just stating that "The title in question, For the Love of Jack / EAN 9781401086916, is already cancelled in our system." with no answer as to when that was done or why it was still available.
Cutting this shorter than including in all the evidence and emails back and forth, on March 28, 2019 Xlibris responded with,
"However, although no new copies were produced, we would like to make you aware that due to our relationship with various printers and book distributors, physical copies of your book may currently exist within the book vending channels until these copies have been sold out."
The email went on to state that, when a book is out of print, it can still be online but will show "out of print" or "not available" even though I had already shown them, that according to Amazon, they had at least one new one.
So, I ordered it and it shipped.
I didn't know I was a magician! How did I manage to buy a brand new book that went extinct in 2005? Wow, looks like there are a lot of (FLUSHING) magic tricks going on!
This new copy that did not exist shipped out the day after I ordered it from California.
On April 1, 2019, exactly 16 years after they published my book, I asked them to tell me when they supposedly stopped it from being printed. On April 2, 2019 they responded with this.
"Upon further checking, the book was cancelled way back March 11, 2005. Therefore, there was really a time wherein the book was available."
When questioned again as to how it was possible I managed to buy a new book...and not a new one, they replied with this.
The books I bought online in 2005 were new, and they had emailed acknowledgement of at least one of them. How were they not able to decide when they "cancelled" it? Was it 2004? 2005? And how the (FLUSH) were people making money off new ones when Xlibris denied the existence of new ones?
*******
update 4/17/2019
About the ISBN Standard "The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes. If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately. This can have implications for doing business in the publishing industry supply chain."
"For more than thirty years, ISBNs were 10 digits long. On January 1, 2007 the ISBN system switched to a 13-digit format. Now all ISBNs are 13-digits long. If you were assigned 10-digit ISBNs, you can convert them to the 13-digit format at the converter found at this website. A 10-digit ISBN cannot be converted to 13-digits merely by placing three digits in front of the 10-digit number. There is an algorithm that frequently results in a change of the last digit of the ISBN."
But that is exactly what they did!
ISBN-13:978-1401086916
ISBN-10:1401086918 So why would they add this number years after they supposedly stopped printing it?
*******
How did I manage to buy new books, yes, paying full price, for books that went extinct? I called Morgan and Morgan yesterday and ran down what happened. They wanted to know how many I thought were sold. How the (FLUSH) would I know that since Xlibris keeps saying that only "used" copies are being sold and they have "no control" over that? The lesson here is, never publish on April Fools Day...or with Xlibris because after 16 years of putting me through hell, they cannot, or will not, explain how it is a book that had so few sales, according to them, IS STILL BEING SOLD!
Ariana Grande ‘Didn’t Mean to Startle’ Anyone With ‘Terrifying’ Brain Scan Pics
US Weekly By Dan Clarendon April 12, 2019
“I wish there was more that I could fix. You think with time it’ll become easier to talk about. Or you’ll make peace with it. But every day I wait for that peace to come, and it’s still very painful.” Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande wants fans to know that her post-traumatic stress disorder is “not a joke,” and she documented her mental health struggle with brain scan images posted to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, April 11.
The post displays images of a typical brain scan, a brain scan from someone suffering from PTSD, and Grande’s brain scan. The scan of the PTSD-affected brain showed more highlighted areas than that of the typical brain, but Grande’s brain scan showed even more highlighted areas than either of them. In her caption, the 26-year-old called her scans “hilarious and terrifying.” read more here
Central Iowa mom surprises children following 10-month deployment to Afghanistan
ABC 9 News
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - Captain Keri Pender, of the Iowa National Guard, pulled a fast one on her three children Thursday in West Des Moines.
She surprised her three children at their schools following a ten-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Before she left the United States, Pender, who has served with the Iowa National Guard for eight years, told her kids Caleb, a sixth grader; Devin, an eighth grader; and Bailey, a tenth grader, that she was going to be deployed longer than expected. go here for more
